Well it finally happend, Walgreens went corperate. The corp. office wants one vender to mow all the stores in my region. which is like 38 stores I had five stores and the managers are very unhappy and dont want to lose me as I have been mowing them for 5 years now. Has any body else ran into this problem with the Walgreens? What is ganna happen? The managers gave them all my info and I am supoosed to get a call first part of April but I am not going to hold my breath. I am afraid some huge company will take them like " Bullshit Brinkman" company who can afford to low the ball them and make no money HAHA. let me know your thoughts thanks!

Bunton Guy

03-24-2012, 04:06 PM

I think you meant "brickman" ? Read other posts around here about them....they are not exactly lowballing. They make money at the price they bid the jobs at. They get labor & materials at prices we would dream of. Thus making their ability to out price us easy for them.

On a side note I still think our local walgreens are individually bid out. Could be wrong but all the stores locally are done by different LCO's

superdog1

03-24-2012, 09:09 PM

I think you meant "brickman" ? Read other posts around here about them....they are not exactly lowballing. They make money at the price they bid the jobs at. They get labor & materials at prices we would dream of. Thus making their ability to out price us easy for them.

On a side note I still think our local walgreens are individually bid out. Could be wrong but all the stores locally are done by different LCO's

Brickman has it down to a science. They will cut even a small lawn with 4 or 5 guys. They can knock out a 10,000 sq. ft lawn in 15mins tops, and that is with the trimming and blowing done and them pulling out of the parking lot!

I sub for them on snow accounts and I have 3 lawn contracts through them. They pay on time and are very easy to work with. They seem to know what they are doing?

AintNoFun

03-24-2012, 10:09 PM

why is it a larger companies fault that you can't handle all 38 stores?

i cant blame walgreens who wants to chase 38 landscapers when they can chase one..

superdog1

03-24-2012, 11:17 PM

why is it a larger companies fault that you can't handle all 38 stores?

i cant blame walgreens who wants to chase 38 landscapers when they can chase one..

I agree with you 100% This is another reason CO's like Brickman are taking over all of the huge corporate accounts. There is 1 point of contact and 1 check cut every month. They know ahead of time how much everything will cost them and can budget for everything at the beginning of the year. This is especially true when it comes to snow removal!

This is a trend that will continue. Brickman saw the opportunity and jumped on it. This is also happening with a lot of the regional stores that are in maybe a 4 or 5 county area in one state.

I just got a phone call on Thursday from a guy claiming to represent Sears and Kmart. It seems that they require their regional managers to take care of the stores under their charge. The old way was the manager to go through the yellow pages and find a contractor in the area of the store that needed the work. Then he/she would have to secure and check the bids, check insurance requirements and verify coverage, coordinate the start and end dates etc.

This process ended up taking up way to much time for the managers with no real national standard process. According to the person I spoke to, they now have a corporate website that all the managers have to do is forward the work that needs to be done and this division takes care of the rest.

I am going to try it, as the only cost to me is adding Sears and Kmart as additional insureds to my policy and passing a background check. Once that is done, I will be able to access the site and view and bid on all the work available in my area. What do I have to lose?

That's funny. Just tonight we were sitting at a light next to our local Walgreens and I was noticing how awful it looks. It years past it always looked great.
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TheDude88

03-25-2012, 12:27 AM

The company I work for is contracting landscaping this season for Walgreens in the upcoming couple of weeks. We are trying to keep on whoever did the locations last year if possible. On Monday you should call 888-258-2109 and ask to talk to the person who is working on contracting out the MN stores. Is your company called Perfect Touch by chance? Our records show that's who did the location in Elk River last year, but we weren't provided a phone number for the company. You should have gotten a letter detailing that we are taking over the account on April 1st, so if they ask where you got the phone number from just say from the letter.

Mowingman

03-25-2012, 10:03 AM

Driving hundreds of miles every week to take care of 38 stores is going to be pretty darn expensive with gas at $4.00/gal and diesel higher than that.
I would let someone else take that hit, and find good customers closer to home base.
These big companies that travel long distances to do mulitple locations are going to have to rethink their pricing, and soon. I bet a lot of them that bid these jobs low, last year, are kicking themselves already.

fastlane

03-25-2012, 11:04 AM

Driving hundreds of miles every week to take care of 38 stores is going to be pretty darn expensive with gas at $4.00/gal and diesel higher than that.
I would let someone else take that hit, and find good customers closer to home base.
These big companies that travel long distances to do mulitple locations are going to have to rethink their pricing, and soon. I bet a lot of them that bid these jobs low, last year, are kicking themselves already.

Most times big companies are adding these stops into existing routes. They are not making one trip of several hundred miles.

Mowingman

03-25-2012, 01:54 PM

Yes, they may be able to do that, but, it still adds up to a lot of miles every week.

orlawncaresvc

03-25-2012, 05:44 PM

Well it finally happend, Walgreens went corperate. The corp. office wants one vender to mow all the stores in my region. which is like 38 stores I had five stores and the managers are very unhappy and dont want to lose me as I have been mowing them for 5 years now. Has any body else ran into this problem with the Walgreens? What is ganna happen? The managers gave them all my info and I am supoosed to get a call first part of April but I am not going to hold my breath. I am afraid some huge company will take them like " Bullshit Brinkman" company who can afford to low the ball them and make no money HAHA. let me know your thoughts thanks!

That sucks to hear. But if Brickman lowballs and they make no money, how is it that they are still in business. And their yearly revenue is over 500 million?

93Chevy

03-25-2012, 06:28 PM

Most times big companies are adding these stops into existing routes. They are not making one trip of several hundred miles.

Yeah, exactly. They could be traveling 60+ miles to hit a big HOA, retirement community, or whatever, and then hit a quick couple banks or pharmacies on the way back home. No additional travel cost whatsoever.

White Gardens

03-25-2012, 06:52 PM

Yeah, exactly. They could be traveling 60+ miles to hit a big HOA, retirement community, or whatever, and then hit a quick couple banks or pharmacies on the way back home. No additional travel cost whatsoever.

That or if it is one store in the locations, then they probably end up subbing it out to someone local.

As for the National debate, I do work for Brickman also. I will say the relationship I have with them isn't bad at all. Good payment schedule, and good communication with the rep.

That and the pricing isn't bad at all for the locations considering there is plenty of local "bigger" companies that are low-balling the crud out of places. Basically their making Brickman look like heroes.

.....

superdog1

03-26-2012, 07:26 AM

As for the National debate, I do work for Brickman also. I will say the relationship I have with them isn't bad at all. Good payment schedule, and good communication with the rep.

That and the pricing isn't bad at all for the locations considering there is plenty of local "bigger" companies that are low-balling the crud out of places. Basically their making Brickman look like heroes.

.....

I have to agree with you. You have to haggle a little from the first price offered, but overall, I am very happy. I have a snow contract with them. I was paid all my $$ so far even though we only had 1 plowable event and 3 salt applications. I had heard that other National's were coming back and trying to get out of paying the entire amount because of the lack of snow?